


Blood-Warm

by Revolucionarturo



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Genre: AU, F/M, adoption au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21566854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolucionarturo/pseuds/Revolucionarturo
Summary: Alphonse and Edward Elric survive their mother, and are left alone without their father. A young man of the government takes them in as a foster father, and eventually adopts them. The boys live under the care of Roy Mustang, a man who off the bat knows he would die for these two kids. As happy as they all are, Edward just can’t shake the thought that he’d be happier if his mom could come back.
Relationships: RoyAi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	1. Steel’s Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> A general trigger warning for death, violence, war mentions, guns, basically anything else you’d find in Fullmetal Alchemist. 
> 
> !An Update!: I’m starting college so my updates might be a lot slower! This fic is definitely still a work in progress, thank you for your patience.

The day they buried their mom, Edward couldn't stop crying. Alphonse tried everything to console his older brother, clinging to his side, but he just couldn't stop. As they packed their bags, he sniffled and sobbed. There was an instant, when their mother's friend Pinako came to take them to the train station, when he stopped. He threw his bag on the ground and raced back inside of his house.  
  
"Oh, Ed–" Pinako called after him, groaning and walking up to the door. He was back in a flash, holding one of his mother's thin blankets. "Oh. You're taking that?" He didn't answer, but hurried up and shoved it inside of one of his bags. The lady grabbed Al's luggage, letting the younger sibling walk beside her.  
  
Edward lagged behind with his own bags, sniffling as he walked, shifting the suitcases in his grip as often as he'd breathe. By the time they said their goodbyes and met up with a man from Central, Ed was full out crying again. A man who would be fostering the two until they were adopted. He looked pretty young, very clean cut. His eyes were a soft black, they reminded Edward of the coats his mom would wear when she'd take him to his school. He smiled down at the two brothers gently.  
  
"Need a hand with that?" He asked Ed, who stubbornly held onto his bags and glared at him.  
  
"This one's a tough nut." Pinako said to the man, referring to Ed. "I think you'd have an easier time pushing the train than you would getting him to cooperate." But the man shook his head and took Al's bags.  
  
"I think I'll be fine, Ms. Pinako." He winked at her and it made Edward angrier. "I'll call you when we get back to Central, and I'll make sure to give you updates." Once again, they said goodbyes and the man helped the boys onto the train. He put their luggage up and let them sit next to each other.  
  
The boys eventually settled in, and Alphonse fell asleep against his brother, who continued to cry. He tried to stay still for his little brother, though, to let him get rest. He kept looking at the strange new man, who quickly returned his attention.  
  
"Your name is Edward, right?" The man said. Ed ignored him, but he guessed he was right. "I'm Roy. Roy Mustang." He smiled curtly. "I'm the one who's going to watch over you and your brother for a while. You're going to stay with me. Are you okay with that?" The kid didn't respond, but wiped his face free of his tears. Roy sat back on the hard seat of the train, looking out of the window at the setting sun. 

"It's always so pretty. Especially at night. There are so many different colors, sometimes I get a little lost in them." He looked back at Ed, who looked a little short if surprised.  
  
"You know, Ed, I lost my parents when I was about as young as you. I didn't know what to do with myself, I didn't have what I needed." Roy explained to the young blond, who listened intently. "I was lucky because my aunt took me in and cared for me. I know I'm not anyone you know, or that you're used to, but I do hope you'll let me care for you as any family would. You boys deserve someone who wants to be there for you."  
  
Edward stared at the man with big, golden eyes. He looked at his younger brother and then back at the man, who was sitting patiently across from him.  
  
"It's okay, Ed. You don't have to say anything." Roy told him gently taking off his coat and laying it over Alphonse. "You should get some rest, the first few days are always the hardest."


	2. Metal’s Malleability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boy’s try to settle into their life at Roy’s and Roy tries to get accustomed to having children in his small home. Everything is fine for the first few days, then the restlessness hits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General trigger warning for mentions of death, grief, mentions and descriptions of flashbacks and war related trauma.

The first full day Edward and Alphonse stayed at this new man's house was havoc, for all of them. Roy had no idea what to do with these two little kids at first. He was nervous and extra careful around them, worried he might upset or break them. He helped them get their room set up, helped make their beds. It was a quiet day for them all, and tense. 

Roy sat up in his kitchen late that night, after putting the boys to bed, leaning over a cup of coffee. He sipped at it and sunk into his chair with a sigh. He sat for what felt like forever, thinking about the boy's situation, thinking about how to make it more comfortable for them. In the span of him sitting for forever, little Alphonse popped around the corner and caught his eye. 

"Can't sleep?" Roy asked. Al shook his little head no and inched closer. The man put his mug on the table, scooting his chair out. "You okay, Alphonse?" The boy hopped closer to Roy and grabbed him by his sleeve like he had a secret to tell him. He bent down a little, to meet his height. 

"I want a story." Said Al. "Mommy always told me stories." 

"Oh, she'd tell you them when it was time for bed?" The young boy nodded his head quickly. So, Roy stood and helped him back to bed, tucking him in nice and neat. He sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the kid. "What kind of stories do you like?" He spoke quiet, so Ed could sleep, but loud enough for Alphonse to hear him. Al furrowed his eyebrows a little bit, thinking on it. 

"I like princess stories." This made Roy smile. Not because he thought it was funny, or because he wanted to make fun of the boy, but he thought it was cute. 

"Alright, I can tell you a princess story, Al. I'll tell you the best princess story you've ever heard." Alphonse got comfy and looked up at Roy with the wonders of the world in his eyes. "There was once a castle. It was big a brilliant and everyone that lived around it loved it and took care of it. They thought it was empty, because they'd never seen anyone go into it, or leave from it. One day, a girl came out of the castle and everyone was shocked. They asked who she was and she said she was the princess that lived in the castle, and she wanted to express her appreciate to her town for taking care of her castle, and for taking care of her. She told them their actions have kept her alive, because the castle is her protector and they kept her protector clean and strong." 

Roy noticed Al starting to fall asleep, speaking a little quieter. "The town was her family when she had none, and they raised her like their own, and loved her just the same. Because family isn't limited to birth, you can choose your family, and that's what they did. That's what she did." He stood carefully and quietly from the kid's bed and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

He felt better, much better than he had earlier. Lingering outside of their door for a moments pass... something just didn’t feel right to him. Roy drew in a deep breath and walked back to the kitchen, taking his mug from the surface of the wooden table. His footsteps were quiet and steady as he took it to the sink and set it down carefully. Turning from the sink, a deep dread settles in his stomach.

Every night, around the same time, he’d just get so upset, so overwhelmed. He had previously mentioned this to one of his old war buddies, Hawkeye. She asked him how he had felt after the Ishvalan Conflict and he couldn’t bring himself to answer her. He took a few calculated steps from the sink and had to sit down because he couldn’t breathe. 

The floor felt cool under his palms and feet. His clothes felt soft and gentle, and his chest felt heavy. Roy counted the things he could see and heavily exhaled. He breathed in slowly, breathing out shakily. While he could breathe, he couldn’t shake this feeling of unease. 

Eventually he had moved to his room, but the dark and lonely space just made him feel isolated. He thought of the meeting he had with Edward and Alphonse and how sad they looked. Staring up at his ceiling, the thought of how to handle their grief came to him. When he had lost his parents, he didn’t deal with his feelings for a very long time. He still doesn’t. 

“I don’t want them bottling it up.” He said to himself, turning on his side, ruffling up the blanket under him. He never slept underneath his covers, it made him claustrophobic. He needed to create a more open environment for the brothers. One they felt safe and comfortable in.


	3. The Making of a Diamond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys meet a rather dear friend of Mustang’s. Maybe she’s more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for mentions of nightmares and war.

Roy felt he always made everything more complicated than it needed to be. He awoke early, heart pounding at the ghost that his nightmares left to haunt him. There was something to look forward to about this day. It was the third of the month, it was sunny, new. And she was coming over. He made breakfast while he thought of her, and the simplest of ways in which she made his heart fly. 

He set the table as neat as he could, walking to the room he had given to the boys. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he took a pause, hearing soft chatter from inside. He smiled to himself, listening to the children play amongst themselves. Of course, that was until he heard a whack and a thud. He stormed into the room, panicked and suspicious.

Alphonse was on the floor, glaring at his brother teary eyed, holding his head. Ed didn’t have the best track record with Alphonse, Roy remembered Miss. Pinako telling him. 

“Keep an eye out for those two, Edward likes to bully his little brother.” She had warned him. When Edward saw Mustang, he froze in the middle of the room. He was obviously trying to come up with an explanation, but Roy stared at him as if to advise otherwise. 

The older of the two huffed and helped Al up, mumbling an apology. 

“Dinner is in the kitchen, if you can find your way to the table without beating up on each other.” Edward looked rather offended, but it made Al give a little giggle through his tears.

Roy let the kids walk out in front of him, guiding them to the kitchen. They took their seats and almost immediately Ed started eating. It was surprising to Roy that the boys didn’t pray(not that the man was all about the idea of a god), but he didn’t want to question it. He knew he wasn’t happy when people forced religion down his throat. 

He sat with them and waited a moment before he started on his own plate of food. He noticed Al giving him a little stare and politely smiled at the child.

“Is there something you need, Alphonse?” The younger Elric shyly nodded and looked down at the food on the table. 

“Thank you for breakfast.” He responded in a hushed tone. Roy was a bit taken by the thank you, and shook his head.

“That’s very nice of you, Al, but you don’t need to thank me. You need to eat and I’m always going to be more than happy to feed you.” The man said to him, then at the two kids. “This is your house now too, okay? I’m not fostering you because I want praise, I’m doing it because I want you to be cared for.” Edward gave him a weird look and Al smiled and continued to eat. 

The rest of breakfast was filled with Ed and Al eating in silence, and Roy being the awkward third party to the boys doing so. When he collected their plates after the brothers had finished, he told them to go explore the small house while he washed the dishes. He scrubbed the dishes in silence until he heard a loud gasp. He quickly dropped the plate and ran to the noise source. 

Ed had quickly pulled a book off of one of his shelves and turned to the man, very confused as to why he ran over so fast. 

“You know alchemy?!” The young Elric was ecstatic, opening the book, skimming the pages. “That’s so cool!” Roy had to take a second before responding, putting a wet and shaky had over his chest. 

“You scared me—“ he gave a short sigh, collecting himself at the drop of a hat. “Do you know any alchemy?” Edward fidgeted with one of the pages.

“Not much. My dad had a study— Al and I would practice it, but…” He shrugged and closed the book, handing it over to Mustang. “I didn’t think someone like you would know about it.” The man laughed a little at the comment. 

“I specialize in flame alchemy.” Ed gawked and called for Alphonse, shaking his younger brother by his shoulders when he came over. 

“Al!” The poor younger brother soon got dizzy and Roy had to stop Ed. “Uh-“ he looked up at Roy. “What do I call you?” And… Mustang has not even thought about that. 

“You can call me Roy, if you’d like.”

“Alphonse! Roy does flame alchemy!” Boy, did Alphonse look just as amazed as his brother. 

“Whoa!” His eyes lit up so bright. “Could you teach us?” The boys said at the same time, looking up at the man with anticipation. Roy gave a soft laugh and started to say something, but stopped when he heard a knock at their door. 

“We can talk more about it later, okay?” The boys both have a loud groan as he walked away from them, Ed storming after him to steal the alchemy book back. He opened the door and gave the kid a look.

“Oh, well it’s nice to see you too.” Chimed a voice, gentle yet stern. Roy looked at the lady standing in the doorway and turned into a stuttering mess. She let herself in, looking at the boys in surprise. “I didn’t think you’d get them that fast.” 

“Uh,” Roy closed the door and looked to the children. “These are the Elric brothers, Hawkeye.”

“What!” Alphonse gasped. “That’s such a cool name! I wish my name was Hawkeye!” The woman smiled. 

“Well, my name is Riza. Hawkeye is my last name.” This lady, Riza, said to him. 

“But— that’s so cool! And your hair is short like mine!” There was no doubt that it was. The only long thing about it was her bangs, which sat neatly on her forehead. Roy motioned to the amazed boy, eyebrows raised. 

“This is Alphonse.” Then he pointed to Edward, who had since sat himself on Roy’s couch and started reading the book. “That’s Edward. He’s the older one I was telling you about.” 

“Have they been with you for long?” She asked, removing her coat. Mustang took it from her and hung it on his coat rack. 

“No, just a few days.” The two adults made eye contact and for a brief moment, held it. After a moment, Roy grew red in the face and looked to the kitchen. “Uh, I’ll make us coffee. Make yourself at home, Riza.” He loved saying her name, it felt good. She nodded and smiled warmly. While he made his way to the kitchen, she found her way to the couch and sat next to Edward. 

“Maybe you could teach me a little something about alchemy?” She said to him. It caught him by surprise. The kid looked at her and opened the book just a little more for her to see. Riza leaked in just a little closer, skimming the page. She didn’t understand it at all, but Ed looked so invested that it made her interested in it. 

Roy returned with their coffee and set hers on the table in front of the couch. He stood and glanced to Alphonse. 

“Al, would you like to sit and read with Miss Riza and Ed?” The young boy thought and then gasped really dramatically.

“You never answered us! Would you teach us flame alchemy?” Riza froze and pressed so hard on the book that Ed almost dropped it. Roy inhaled slowly, not because he was upset with the kid, he was just nervous. 

“I… think we should table flame alchemy until we can talk about it more.” He said to Al, smiling patiently. The boy frowned and nodded, making Ed scoot over for him instead of taking the free space on the other side of Hawkeye. The man could sense the tension from his friend, knowing their usually nice time together would be on pause. The mention of the teaching of flame alchemy so soon after the war? It must have been like rubbing salt on an open wound


	4. Made of Iron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy is still figuring this parent thing out, and he is not at all prepared for his first letter from their school.

Oh, dear god. Roy read over the paper a million times and it just about killed him each time he reread it. This was absolutely awful, it was hell. It was! It had him biting his nails. He had broken that habit years ago, it felt like. 

“It really can't be that bad.” Riza said, taking the paper from him. “Not if it’s just a letter.”

“It has to be!” He paced around his kitchen, wringing his hands and fingers anxiously. “Oh, shhhii--” The man gave a shaky sigh and stopped slowly. “They're going to see me and know that I`m a fraud. I’ve never dealt with a kid getting in trouble before!” He looked at her, very serious, very terrified. “Ed got in trouble.” He said in a whisper. It was real. “What if they take him from me?” 

Riza laughed and folded the paper closed, crossing her arms. She leaned back in her chair, watching this grown man panic. A man who has endured war and loss, panicking over a parent teacher conference. 

“Roy, calm down.” 

“No!” Really dramatically, Roy put his hands on his face and dragged them down, groaning. His friend stood and walked over to him, putting her hands on his shoulders.

“Hey.” Her tone was set and stern. “It's one incident. They won’t take either of the boys away just because they got in trouble. You’re doing good with them, Roy.” He put his hands down and kind of grit his teeth. He didn’t know how to handle himself. “You’ll freak Ed and Al out if they see you acting like this. Just,” She smiled and he followed suit, but less enthusiastically. “Polish yourself up and breathe. I’m sure the letter is the worst of it.” 

Roy tried to take her word for it, but during the taxi ride with the kids, he was just dreading the meeting. It felt incredibly overwhelming. Everything. He couldn’t place what was overwhelming or why, but it felt awful, and he felt awful. Though, for Edward and Alphonse, he kept as calm as he could. But, the car ride was tense. Of course, he was upset with Ed. He had gotten in trouble and that can’t be ignored, as much as the kid wanted it to be.

None of them talked for the entire ride. Truth be told, Roy regretted it. Alphonse looked almost as nervous as the man felt. He wished he had said something to comfort him. As they walked into the building, he kind of smiled at the younger brother and it seemed to calm his nerves. Seeing Al calm down helped him gather himself, even if only a little bit.

“So, Ed,” Roy started, looking at the walls of the school’s hallway as they walked. Ed and Al stayed beside each other, walking in front of the man. “What’d you do?” In response, the brother just shrugged and the other one looked at the ground. This struck Mustang as odd. He didn’t know what to say. He had expected Edward to brush him off, but Al? Was it that bad? 

They led him to their classroom and seemed to be preparing for the worst. The trio sat in a row of chairs, neatly aligned in front of the teacher’s desk. Hell, Roy felt like he was the one in trouble. Their teacher started talking but he couldn’t hear him. Sounds were lost to him. Mustang put all of his energy into not bouncing his leg or biting his nails, so much that he just could not process anything else. 

“Sir?” The instant Roy could hear him, he kind of jumped. “Did you hear what I said?” Ed and Al were both looking at him. The teacher gave Roy a look. “Edward hit a kid during the lunch break. We can’t have him being violent with the other children, it reflects badly on our school.” 

Roy scowled at the other man, but looked patient when he turned to Edward. The kid glared back, very obviously expecting the worst.

“I shouldn’t even be in trouble!” He turned his attention from Mustang to the floor. “I hit him because he was being mean to Al!” Al also looked at the floor, like he didn’t want to be the start of a bigger problem. Of course. Roy felt bad for thinking Ed would start a fight for no reason.

“Did you know that?” It was very obvious, at least to Roy, that the teacher knew. He wasn’t going to confirm or deny it, but he knew. “Did the other kid get a letter sent home?” The look the teacher gave him told Roy enough. “No,” he gave a short, bitter laugh. “Of course not. Ed, Al, we’re leaving.” He felt that if he stayed any longer he might do or say something that he shouldn't. So, he took the boys and walked them out of the classroom without another word.

When the got away from the class, Roy stopped them and lowered himself to Ed’s height. He didn’t touch him, but he leveled his gaze to meet the boy’s.

“Ed, I need you to know that it is never okay to put your hands on another person like that.” How many times had he been told this? By his teachers, by his mother… “You should never hit anybody, unless you’re defending yourself.”

“I was defending Al! That’s a good reason!” 

“You should have made sure your brother was okay. I understand wanting to protect him, but there are other ways to go about doing that.” Ed crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from Roy, visibly upset.

“You’re not in trouble. I’m not angry with you, but please keep in mind that fighting can get you into a lot of trouble.” The man told him. “I just want you, both of you, to be safe. It’s hard to make sure of that when you’re getting into trouble.” He stood himself up. Roy felt it was best to leave the conversation there. “Let’s head home and get started on dinner.”

Edward was quiet for the ride back to their home, and for most of dinner. The smell of the food made his stomach hurt, even though he was hungry. He wasn’t upset with Roy, just incredibly homesick. He missed his mom, and Roy acting like his parent made wanting to go home worse. The apartment had just started feeling like a home, but nothing could ever replace Resembool. 

Something needed to be done about this feeling.


End file.
